New ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Clips: Scotty Meets Jaylah and Shields Up!

Good news for Star Trek fans: not only have the early reviews of the film been pretty positive, the last few days saw two solid Star Trek Beyondclips hit the internet for those looking to dig a little bit deeper into the movie. So all those coworkers of mine who keep asking me, since I’m a film critic, if they should be worried about the relative lack of Star Trek Beyond coverage, relax! Things are looking pretty good.

In the first clip linked above, we see the first encounter between Scotty (Simon Pegg) and Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) after the destruction of the Enterprise. The awkwardness of first contact has always been a staple in the Star Trek playbook; if you are a fan waiting for the new Star Trek series to forge its own path away from the major plot points of the original series, the light humor and patter between the two actors in this clip must be like a breath of fresh air. Sofia Boutella, in barely a minute, seems like a more interesting and capable character than we found in the entirety of Star Trek Into Darkness. To borrow a phrase from the 2009 Star Trek, “I like this clip!”

In the second clip, we also see the moments leading up to the attack — and eventual destruction — of the Enterprise. Here we see the flipside of the first encounter, with Kirk and his crew wary but not necessarily hostile until it is a little too late. This might be a strange thought, but in an era where action movies means even Batman gets to shoot you in the face, I found myself weirdly happy to remember that the characters in Star Trek will always use violence as a last resort. Again, nothing too new here, but a reminder that we’re more in sync with the kind of Star Trek movie a lot of fans wanted to see.